The opening day of the Calcutta Cold Weather season provided mixed fortunes for punters with several fancied  runners obliging in the card of six races. The two costly failures were Sea Lion and True Marshall who were both available at rather cramped odds. In the main event, The Tintinnabulation Cup, Aashay Doctor-trained Delphini (Bated  Breath-Performer)carried 61 kg on her back to a comfortable victory while stablemate and on-money public choice True Marshal ended up a tame third. The gelding was slow into stride and never quite recovered from his setbackto offer a semblance of a fight to his stablemate. In all fairness it must be said that the best horse on the day won. Delphiniwas piloted expertly by Yash Narredu who allowed her to settle while Monfortino and Hidden Gold went hell for leather. Once into the straight, the mare sailed past the duo in great style.

One race earlier, Yash Narredu had combined successfully with trainer Aashay Doctor to bring home the bacon with wonder filly Meropi (Western Aristocrat-Panamera) who quite easily got the better of Clifford in the seven-furlong race for The Sang Froid Handicap. The classy Guineas candidate travelled three wide all the way but displayed quickfire acceleration in the final furlong to peg back Clifford who had taken the shortest route home.

The other trainer in the limelight on day-one was Neil Darashah who led in Rhapsody in Green and Kalahari Gold. The former – a five-year-old mare by Planetaire out of Paradise Royale – won the mile race for the Relevance Handicap in a common canter. Jockey Akshay Kumar allowed herto settle behind front-running Lucky Nine till the straight and left the field standing thereafter. It was a superlative show for which the chestnut mare was penalised 6.5kg by the handicapper. Neil Darashah brought the curtain down on the afternoon’s proceedings with four-year-old bay filly Kalahari Gold (Phoenix Tower-Sandslash) who bagged the sprint for the Xisca Handicap. Jockey Saqlain had her jumping out of the stalls first before allowing Indian Tiger to show the way till the straight. Once she took over the running, she could be spotted as a winner long way from home.

Neil Darashah’s Sea Lion proved to be the afternoon’s costliest failure as the five-year-old bay gelding went down narrowly to Basharat (Stardan- -Amanda’s Queen) in the mile race for the Azzuro Handicap. Jockey Akshay Kumar took the ten-to-three-on public choice to the helm of affairs as the gates opened but the top weight began to shorten his strides from the distance post. He was conceding chunks of weight to the eventual winner and Rimel and both these runners took advantage of their light impost to throttle the winner of the Calcutta 2000 Guineas two years earlier. Shyam Habbu -trained Basharat responded well to the urgings of jockey Vinay Jaiswal to squeeze through along the rails in the final furlong and edge out the favourite at the wire.

Trainer Christopher Alford kicked off the cold weather season with a winner as his Tropical Lady (Arazan – Fire Song) won the sprint for the Ardelis Handicap after a hard-fought duel with front-running Cosmic Cowboy who is one for the notebook. The winner was piloted by Nikhil Naidu.